2. Status of this guidance

2.1. Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
sets out the key rights and duties and provides a framework for the
asset transfer process. It gives the Scottish Ministers powers to
make regulations to fill in more detail of the procedures to be
followed. The following regulations have been laid in the Scottish
Parliament for scrutiny:

2.3. Subject to the agreement of the Parliament, Part 5 of the
Act and the Regulations will come into force on
23 January 2017.

2.4. This guidance has been developed in discussion with a
steering group and short life working group of stakeholders, listed
in
Annexes
A and
B,
and takes account of comments made in response to the consultation
on draft regulations conducted from 17 March to 20 June 2016.
Discussions with stakeholders at many meetings and events during
development of the Bill and since the Act was passed have also
informed the guidance, and we are grateful to everyone for their
help.

2.5. Separate guidance is provided for relevant authorities, and
you may sometimes find it helpful to refer to that as well.
Relevant authorities are required, under section 96 of the Act, to
have regard to guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers in
carrying out their functions relating to asset transfer. Both
versions of the guidance cover the whole process, but focus on the
points where each party has to take action - for example, there is
more guidance for community transfer bodies on completing the
request form, and more for relevant authorities on the
acknowledgement and notices they have to issue following receipt of
a request.

2.6. This guidance is published as a "draft final" version. The
statutory requirements and procedures are now fixed (subject to
approval by the Scottish Parliament), and the recommended approach
reflects best practice as discussed with both public sector and
community sector stakeholders with experience of asset transfer.
However, there is still flexibility to adjust the wording to make
the guidance clearer. Please send any comments, questions and
suggestions to
assettransferguidance@gov.scot
. Final guidance will be published when the legislation comes into
force.